Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Many times we ask children a
variation of this question.Sometimes
we ask: what did you do in school today.Far too frequently the answer is “nothing”.There is, of course, a wide range of reasons
for this answer.The most obvious is
that the child in fact did not learn anything or at least not anything that she
can articulate.Or the truth might be
that what was done or learned just takes too much energy to talk about so he
won’t.The really sad truth is that much
of what she learned in school today is pretty useless for tomorrow.And that is what is so scary because the
stakes are so high.

I think it is a condition of
the human nature that when we don’t know what to do about something we look for
concrete measurements to make us think we are progressing or not.And so in order to improve education we
started to measure everything with tests.We know based on incoming college freshmen testing that these young
adults are no better prepared for college today than they were before all the
testing.

So what should we be teaching
kids in schools if not algebra II?First
of all, most of today’s students will wind up in jobs that haven’t even been
invented yet.So any notion of preparing
children for specific jobs doesn’t really make sense.Continually we ignore what employers tell us
they need in good employees whether we are talking about retail sales, health
care, cyber sleuthing or space travel.We need people who can solve problems.Doesn’t matter what kind of problem.Does the person have a strategy for solving any problem?As in define the problem, identify the
information needed, know how to find the missing information, make an informed
decision after weighing all the consequences that one is aware of at this
time.

Humans need to learn
self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills and
responsible decision-making.Yet how
many of these skills do we learn in school. Not too many because the results can’t be
measured by coloring in little bubbles on a scan sheet or clicking on a
computer screen button.These are hugely
difficult skills to learn and just as difficult to teach.Yet their value to us as individuals is so
much more important than all the “stuff” we memorize in school.Think about this, you can’t Google
self-awareness.Oh you can, but the
result you get back probably won’t help you when you try to figure out how to
lead a fulfilling life.And the way things
are going, you won’t be learning that in school today either.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Remember the old song,
“What’s it all about Alfie?”The next
line is “is it just for the moment we live?”I would like to change that line to “is it just for the moment we
learn?”

We are obsessed as a society
lately with raising standards for our educational system.The immediate translation for this phenomenon
is testing and more of it.Every five to
ten years we have a new batch of tests, each one promising to be more rigorous
and to yet again raise standards.By now
our kids should be doing graduate work while still in high school.

In fact just the opposite is
true.After 20 years of testing and
raising standards, institutions of higher learning are still reporting that
about a third of all incoming freshmen need zero credit remedial work because
they are not prepared for college.Taking these zero credit courses costs students more money for
their education and delays the completion of the 4-year degree.

Why aren’t these tests
working to improve what kids know?First of all, after a year or two of the testing, scores always go
up.Why is that?Simple enough.Teachers catch on and begin teaching to the
current test.We are told that isn’t so
but what would any teacher in her right mind do when she knows the end-of
the-year evaluation will depend on test scores of students.

Secondly, kids know the
information is just for the test.So
once the test is over they are free to forget it and fill their brains with the
information for the next test that they know will be equally useless.⨪

What would happen if the
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) actually
paid attention to the careers portion of the readiness?First of all we would teach Algebra 2, only
to those students who were going on to technical training in college.The rest of the kids could take Economics 1
where they could learn to be wise money managers about debt, signing contracts,
credit applications and paying their taxes by themselves online.Maybe instead of teaching the colonial period
six times over we could teach a better course in government and
citizenship.A course in which the
responsibilities of citizenship receive just as much attention as the rights of
citizenship would be a welcome addition to the curriculum.

Kids could learn about
careers that had more openings than trained prospects.They might even learn to do some of the
skills in those careers.We have made
going to college a political//social issue.We have young adults heading to college without the skills to be there,
a good reason for them to be there and not a clue what to do once they
get there.

Over the last 20 years we
have learned that better test scores have yielded mainly better test
takers.OK, we have done that.Now could we move on to educating our
students for the world they are about to enter.Maybe if we taught them some things they could use right now, there
would be a better chance that what was learned was retained.Because the truth is Alfie, it is not just
for the moment that we live nor is it just for the moment we learn.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Isn’t it grand when research
supports what we easily believe?During
the Great Recession, principals were required to lay off teachers.Because of the circumstances they were given
more latitude than they generally have.Generally because of union contracts teachers are laid off following the
principle last hired, first fired rather than based on teacher performance.

The situation in the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in North Carolina changed that
scenario.In 2009-2010, principals were
given more discretion than usual regarding whom to keep and whom to let
go.Generally, teachers with fewer than
five years of experience were the first to be let go.It is not a great leap in logic to guess that
the least experienced teachers could also be the lesser performing group.However this special situation also allowed
for principals to target less effective teachers regardless of how long they
had been teaching.

A study appearing in
Education, Finance and Policy followed up on student achievement after the lay
offs of the Great Recession.The study
found that 84% of laid off teachers were probationary teachers.So the rule of last hired, first fired
prevailed.Principals said that they
didn’t see the point of terminating tenured teachers since union rules gave
them “recall rights” for any future position openings.

Teachers with over 30 years of experience were
also among the first batch to be let go.Those teachers were receiving both a salary and a pension.These folks known as double dippers are
allowed in NC.

But the really good news is
that on the whole, the teachers who were laid off were rated about 1/3 of a
standard deviation less effective by their principals than were the teachers
who were kept on.Even better news,
fifty-eight percent of teachers who received a “below standard” rating on any
evaluation category were released.

The very good news was that
keeping more effective teachers raised student test scores.

Every time the notion of
using principal evaluations for staff review and/or merit pay comes up, the
unions roadblock it.They are happy with
the pay increases for staying on the job and getting another degree.This study gives some merit to the argument
that good principals know who the good teachers are and, if allowed, they can
make choices that are good for kids.Now
if you REALLY want to know who the best teachers are, just ask the
students.Truly they know and most are
too young to appreciate the benefits of not telling the truth in important
matters.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

What does government do when
it wants to do nothing?Answer:refer to a task force or a committee to study
the problem.Government studies problems
to death without doing anything.Some
times methinks this is the primary function of government.

The current issue is a bill
that was introduced in the Maryland State Legislature this session by State
Senator Joan Carter Conway from Baltimore City.

Roughly 10% of public school
children have disabilities that are defined by both federal and state law.These children are required to have an
education that meets their specific educational needs.The specific needs are spelled out in a
document called the Individual Education Program or IEP.Every child receiving special education services
has one.However, there are often
disagreements between parents and school officials about just what the need for
services is.Parents have to give their
permission for significant changes to their children’s programs.However, there are other changes that the
school system can make without parental approval.

If parents are very unhappy
they can take their case to mediation and/or to a hearing before an
administrative law judge.The problem
is it costs money to hire experts and an attorney to plead the case.School systems have high-powered attorneys on
retainer whose sole purpose is to thwart what parents’ want.If a family wins a legal dispute their legal
costs will be reimbursed.But since the
change in the make up of the hearing officer to an administrative law judge rather than a professional knowledgable in the specific disability area of the child, parents only prevail in about 5%
of the cases.Both parents and school
systems know the deck is very much stacked against parents.

Legislation in the Maryland
General Assembly would have shifted a bit of the balance of power to
families.Under the proposed bill certain
changes in a child’s educational program could not be made without parental
approval. If the system wanted to make these changes without the permission of the family, the school system would have to initiate the hearing. School systems are against the
bill.The Anne Arundel School Board
voted to oppose.The School Board
President said, “parents want the best for their children but school staff know
the resources the students need.”She
went on to say, parents are not the experts in special education.REALLY!So parents have raised this kid, dealt with her 24/7 but have no clue
what resources the child needs?!They may
not have a degree in special education but I think they are experts in their
child.The child will be the
responsibility of the school district through the year the child turns 21.The child will be the concern of the parents
through the time the parent is buried.Hmmmm, let’s see who has the bigger stake in this child’s future?The school system that knows best, of
course, also mentioned that teachers would miss too many days of school if they
had to testify at due process hearings.They are also concerned that if parents get to choose educational
placements they might opt for options that would increase costs.Costs in dollars I am guessing because they
are certainly not considering costs in children’s lives.

You know the old saw about
kicking the can down the road.Well now
with this new committee we will be kicking kids’ lives down the road.

About Me

I have been in the field of special education for 53 years. I have taught at the University of Maryland, College Park. I also have been an administrator of a local school system's special education department and the assistant superintendent for special education for the Maryland State Department of Education. Thirty-three years ago I started The Harbour School a special private school for children with autism, learning disabilities and other learning challenges.